Sunday, May 18, 2008

3 comments:

Mike San Giacomo here. Since I'm the author of TALES OF THE STARLIGHT DRIVE-IN it seems appropriate I get the first post.

I came up with the story of Jimmy The Whale sitting in a parking lot in Ocean City, Md., while my wife was shopping. I remembered a story told to me by the owner of the Aut-O-Rama Drive-in near Cleveland about this outrageously huge guy who was a regular customer at the drive-in because he was too large to fit in a standard theater seat.

That morphed into a story about a mobster going to the drive-in because he feared he would be shot if he went to a conventional theater.

I liked the idea of the fat mobster's equally fat henchman because used to hide the skinny Hispanic killer, who walked behind the henchman as he returned to the car from the snack bar, unseen.

Ian and Seth did a great job bringing Jimmy and friends to life. A printing snafu in the actual book muted their work a book, so I'm very pleased that they can show it off here, in the way it was meant to be shown.

So what are you waiting for? Go read the story. And there are 31 others just as good in TALES OF THE STARLIGHT DRIVE-IN.

Visit our website at www.talesofthestarlightdrivein.com for more samples.MIKE SAN GIACOMO

DEC. 4, 2010Hey to anyone out there.Here's my latest comic column from the Plain Dealer newspaper in Cleveland. I have to break it up into two parts.

I look at a suprsingly good new Archie series, the wonderful new THUNDER AGENTS series from DC and the new TV show from my buddy Brad Meltzer.

Battling crummy weather and the Ohio State-Michigan game, the feisty Genghis Con reported a respectable turnout last Saturday at the Beachland Ballroom in Cleveland.

"We saw a rush of people at halftime," said promoter Scott Rudge, owner of Astound Comics! in Westlake. "Then we had a steady flow all day. Everybody made money, everyone had a good time. It's more of an art show than anything else."

Overall, more than 125 people showed up to talk to independent comics artists like Derf, Mike Gustovich, Gary Dumm and dozens of others at the second annual show. The beauty of a bite-size con is that readers get more face time with artists, which is a huge difference from larger, crowded shows.

THE SOUND OF THUNDER

Finally, the agents of T.H.U.N.D.E.R. are back.

After more than a half-dozen failed attempts to revive the classic 1960s series, including an attempt at DC Comics a few years ago, the first issue of "T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents" (DC, $3.99) was released last week.

And it is good.

The series picks up decades after the end of the original one. New agents have replaced the originals fighting evil organizations like SPIDER.

What makes T.H.U.N.D.E.R. different is that the device that gives the agents their superpowers comes at a price: their lives. For their own reasons, the agents volunteer to wear the superstrength-inducing power belt of Dynamo, the superspeed suit of Lightning and the telepathic helmet of Menthor, knowing their lives will be shortened, their minds destroyed or bodies crippled.

Almost no agents survive the first issue, but new ones are ready to step up. Their motivations and more will be explored in future issues.

In only one issue, writer Nick Spencer and artist Cafu have created an intriguing world. I can't wait to read more. As Neil Young sang, "It's better to burn out than to fade away."